Olga's Autumn

There's good news and bad news.

The good news is, Olga made it through her tooth removal OK, and is back home with us now. She's lying in bed next to me as I type, snoring away.

The bad news is, her medical situation is more complicated than we thought.

Normally, removing a canine incisor as a major job, because the teeth are deeply rooted in the jawbone. In this case, the vet said, her infected tooth came out rather easily, and the vet found that beneath and around it was "abnormal" tissue where the bone should be. In other words, Olga has some sort of tumor in her upper jaw.

I can't say I am at all surprised by this. From the time that lump on her snout showed up last December, I suspected cancer.

The vet is doing a biopsy so we can figure out what kind of growth it is, which will help us decide what to do, if anything. Dave and I are not believers in taking extreme steps. Olga is right at the average life expectancy for a dog of her breed, which is 12 to 14 years. (She's 12 or 13.) So we're not going to be doing radiotherapy or disfiguring surgery. I think it's going to be a matter of keeping her comfortable for as long as she's enjoying life and eating and drinking normally.

In fact, as you may recall, the original plan for yesterday's surgery was to remove both incisors, because the other one has long appeared to be injured or dying. (That's the one the vet told me years ago might need a root canal.) Well, when the vet found the tumor she called me to ask if we still wanted to remove that second tooth as well, and I said no. It's not bothering Olga or causing immediate problems, and the vet concurred.

I may be in denial, but I wonder if this growth isn't benign. Olga has lots of lumps and bumps, which are typical in old bulldogs, and we first noticed this one almost a year ago. It hasn't significantly grown in size in all that time -- in fact it has appeared to shrink or subside at times -- and it hasn't slowed her down. I would think a malignancy would be much larger and more damaging by now. But as I said, the biopsy will tell us what we're dealing with.

The vet couldn't give us a very specific prognosis, but she did say that if it's a malignancy (and she believes it is) Olga probably has months, or maybe a year. Again, not surprising, considering her age. The vet said these types of malignancies typically don't metastasize to other organs, so that's a good thing.

This was Olga's mood when we brought her home last night. She was woozy from the anesthesia, looking at us with droopy-lidded eyes, poor thing. She ate a treat right away and then had a can of food, so that's a good sign that she's bouncing back, at least in the short term.

Of course this adds another level of uncertainty to our plans for the holidays. I've gone ahead and finalized the plans for the million-dollar dog sitter over Christmas. I don't think Olga will decline so rapidly that she'll be gone by then, and we intend to travel to the states as planned, but it's hard to know what to expect.

Weirdly, Dave and I seem to be taking this news pretty well. Like I said, I've long suspected she had more than just a simple infection, and obviously we're both aware of Olga's age. And again, I don't think we're looking at an immediate death. As long as she appears happy, engaged and not in pain, we'll keep plugging away.

(Top: A leaf I found on a recent dog walk.)